This disclosure relates generally to external medical devices, and more specifically, to techniques for remotely controlling and determining a status of an ambulatory medical device.
There are a wide variety of electronic and mechanical medical devices for monitoring and treating medical conditions, such as cardiac arrhythmias. For instance, such medical devices may continuously or substantially continuously monitor the patient for a treatable medical event via one or more sensing electrodes. When a treatable event is detected, such as a treatable cardiac arrhythmia, these medical devices may apply corrective electrical pulses or other therapeutic treatments directly to the patient through one or more therapy electrodes, or otherwise perform one or more actions triggered by the detection of the event, such as generating an alarm.
Medical devices may experience technical problems in use that impair certain functions, including functions for detecting or treating critical medical conditions. Further, medical devices may need to be updated with new information in the field. In some cases, the patient or a technical professional may need to examine the device to identify or resolve the problem. Such examination or updates may be more difficult to perform if the device malfunctions while a patient is at his or her home or place of work and lacks the tools or skills to effectively troubleshoot the problem without assistance.